Simple partial seizures are seizures which affect only a small region of the brain, often the temporal lobes and/or hippocampi. Simple partial seizures are often precursors to larger seizures, where the abnormal electrical activity spreads to a larger area of (or all of) the brain, usually resulting in a complex partial seizure or a tonic-clonic seizure. In this case they are often known as an aura.

Presentation

Simple partial seizures are a very subjective experience, and the symptoms of a simple partial seizure vary greatly between people. This is due to the varying locations of the brain the seizures originate in, and a simple partial seizure may go unnoticed by others or shrugged off by the sufferer as merely a "funny turn".

When the seizure occurs during sleep, the person will often become semi-conscious and act out a dream while engaging with the environment as normal, and objects and people usually appear normal or only slightly distorted, being able to communicate with them on an otherwise normal level. However, since the person is acting in a dream-like state, they will assimilate any hallucinations or delusions into their communication, often speaking to a hallucinatory person or speaking of events or thoughts normally pertaining to a dream or other hallucination.

However, there are some common symptoms experienced by those having a simple partial seizure.

While awake some common symptoms of simple partial seizures are:

• preserved consciousness
• sudden and inexplainable feelings of fear, anger, sadness, happiness or nausea
• experiencing of unusual feelings or sensations
• altered sense of hearing, smelling, tasting, seeing, and tactile perception (sensory illusions and/or hallucinations), or feeling as though the environment is not real or detachment from the environment (depersonalization)
• a sense of spatial distortion--things close by may appear to be at a distance.
• déjà vu (familiarity) or jamais vu (infamiliarity)
• laboured speech or inability to speak at all
• usually the event is remembered in detail

While asleep symptoms include:

• onset usually in REM sleep
• dream like state
• appearance of full consciousness
• hallucinations and/or delusions
• behavior or visions typical in dreams
• ability to engage with the environment and other people as in full consciousness, though often behaving abnormally, erratically, or failing to be coherent
• complete amnesia or assimilating the memory as though it was a normal dream on regaining full consciousness

See also

• epilepsy
• Focal seizure
• Complex partial seizure
• Temporal lobe epilepsy
• God helmet